The Stealth Bomber: D&D Build #154

do you like playing spellcasters in your  RPGs how about assassins ever tried both   in the same character I'm not talking about a  gishy weapon user who stabs but also has spells   I'm talking someone who assassinates with  their spells and only their spells if that   sounds fun or interesting then I would  keep watching if I were you welcome to D4 hey everybody so here at D4 each week we take  a deep dive into character builds for our favorite   roleplaying games I like to crunch numbers about  them Theory craft about them not so that I can   tell you the right way or the best way to play  a certain character but to explore one potential   way to build something that's both powerful but  also really fun to play in game so if you enjoy   creating characters for your role playing games  almost as much as you enjoy playing the actual   game itself or if you're just looking for tips  or ideas on how to build something that you're   thinking about playing then welcome home this  is where you belong and I am so glad that you're   here I really am so thanks for watching my name's  Colby I put out build videos every Tuesday and if   you like what I do I would really appreciate  it if you would consider subscribing to the   channel and maybe even joining uh as a member  of the channel there's a little button down   there that says join for a few bucks a month you  can get access to the library of writeups that I   create for these builds to help you recreate them  in game more easily as well as access to our disc   server and even access to our monthly uh Q&A  hangout sessions that we do with our members   I just uh recorded a new one yesterday actually  so yes huge shout out and thank you to my channel   members I could not do this without you guys  truly and for everybody else I couldn't do this   without you either thanks for just being here and  watching I really appreciate you I truly do right   so a couple of weeks ago I was reviewing my burst  damage builds for my ranking my builds video Nova   version right watch it here if you'd like when I  got to the flamethrower build this build there was   something about it that kind of bugged me namely  how bonus action heavy it was making it a little   less useful for Nova purposes as it would require  some setup before you could really burst but also   I realized that there were some things in the  game one of them newish one of them a little older   actually that I could potentially take advantage  of to really improve the burst damage capabilities   of the build I'll get to the new one once I start  the build proper but as for the old one yeah I   mean I love the Assassin subclass for Rogues in  D and D 5e I suppose it's all those years playing   as a rogue in World of Warcraft but there's just  something so fun about sneaking up on an enemy and   getting a huge burst of damage on them when they  never even knew you were there that I just love to   play with in role playing games but what I never  really considered until recently anyways is this   the premier feature of the Assassin assassinate  the thing that tells us that all of our hits are   automatic criticals if our enem is surprised right  it works on more than just weapon attacks I always   Envision the Rogue like sneaking up and sticking  a wellplace dagger or shortsword into their enemy   back when they're not looking but the wording on  the ability simply says that we have advantage on   attack roles against enemies who haven't gone  in combat yet and any hit we score against   surprised enemies is a critical nothing in there  about weapons it just has to be an attack when   I realized this recently I immediately started  thinking what if we tried to find the best ways   to add damage to attacks that didn't necessarily  have to be weapon attacks and combined them into   one amazing like Arcane assassin the build today  is the result of that Quest that said a word of   warning I'm not actually going to get to Rogue  levels on this build until several levels in   you could of course Go a different route if you  wanted to with this concept as someone beholding   to the spreadsheet like myself building this  character for burst damage like I am it just   makes more sense for us numbers-wise to to start  with a few yes a few other classes first but if   you really wanted to lean into the Assassin  archetype right from the get-go you totally   could the build would still work great it would  have more utility and sneakiness early on but the   burst damage numbers would lag behind until a bit  later which is totally fine anyways Preamble done   I proudly present D and build number 154 I'm not  going to call this flamethrower 2.0 there's way   too much that's different about this build to  call it that I think so instead let's go with   like the assassin Mage or the spell shadow  the spell stalker the scrier Assassin the   deadly librarian Fahrenheit 451 the Arcane Shadow  those are all fantastic options big thanks to the   Discord members for the suggestions for this one  but I think I'm going with the stealth bomber here   huge thanks to my good friend Randall Hampton  for the Fantastic artwork that he put out for   this build he does this for all of my builds he's  an amazing artist if you would like to follow him   on social media to see the other stuff that he's  checked out or to maybe try and commission him   to create some art for your character or even  your whole party I will put links in the video   description on how to do so as always but first  a word from the sponsor this week magic spoon and   I am so excited to have them as a sponsor again  because that means more yummy cereal for me and   check it out they even have now like these  custom made like magic bowls that are like   flexible dishwasher safe cool looking and Magic  spoons ooh that's so pretty perfectly optimized   for cereal lovers like myself and I'm guessing  you you can order them from their website if   they're not sold out but the cereal is the  main thing here for those who haven't heard   yet magic spoon is like the best cereal because  it only has four to 5 G of net carbs which is so   low for cereal and like 13 14 g of protein  per serving which is so high for cereal if   you are considering going for like a lower carb  higher protein kind of diet like I often tend to   do but you don't want to give up eating a bowl of  cereal every day like me then you should seriously   consider checking these guys out they have so  many Fantastic flavors a lot of them remind me   of like my favorite cereals growing up watching  Saturday morning cartoons after sleeping over at   my friend's house because my parents would never  buy the good tasting cereals there's my favorite   of course Maple waffle which I'm enjoying today  but blueberry muffin cinnamon roll cocoa peanut   butter which I really like to mix a lot of the  time fruity frosted and many more all of them   are super fantastic oh and also they do cereal  bars now um this is a chocy peanut butter one my   kids have eaten all the rest of uh the ones that  I got but I got one left I'm going to save it for   later a little afternoon snack they taste great  they've got a lot of protein low nck carbs a great   replacement for like the granola bar or protein  bar that you might usually eat anyways you guys   totally check out magic spoon go to the uh QR code  that's been sitting here this whole time or go to [Music] magicpx spoon they're so confident in  their product that they offer a 100% satisfaction   guaranteed if you don't like what you order for  any reason they will give you a full refund no   questions asked so you've got nothing to lose  try it out for yourself if you haven't see how   delicious it is Big thanks to Magic spoon and  let's get back to the build right after I finish   my maple waffle all right at level one for our  starting class surprise surprise I want to go   fighter you do not have to do this of course  but the heavy armor proficiency for starting   fighter as well as the Constitution saving throw  proficiency that we get which will really help   us among other things with our uh concentration  Checks Plus Shield proficiency right these are   all really compelling reasons to start with  fighter if we're going to get fighter levels   eventually anyways and and since this is a burst  damage build of course we are then it just makes   sense to me to start with fighter here feel  free to go a different route if you want to   that's fine also let me say this like a lot of  builds that I've done on the channel I don't   know that I'd necessarily try to come up with a  great story reason for all of the multiclassing   that we're going to be doing on this build there's  going to be a lot instead I think this is one of   those where you like talk with your DM about the  character and present it like you're making a bit   of a custom class here call it the Arcane chat or  the spell stalker or the spell thief or whatever   and in order to make it work with the 5e rules  you're going to need to be a bit of a fighter a   lot of a forcaster and a splash of a couple other  classes to like flesh out your vision for who and   what they are and how they work right anyways for  our race um I'm going to say we got to go bug bear   here so ever since Mom came out uh that sounds  like a funny sentence out of context Monsters of   the Multiverse was released around a year ago or  so I think bug bear is my most used race from that   book they are just so good I mean okay you get  an extra 5 ft of reach on melee attacks useful   if you're making melee attacks I suppose but then  some fun and kind of weird ability to squeeze into   spaces but for the numbers their surprise attack  ability is just so phenomenal probably a little   bit overpowered in my opinion but I will not look  a gift horse in the mouth now hold on a minute you   might be saying I thought we were a spellcaster  assassin not a weapon user why do we care about   surprise attack well you might not have realized  until I actually didn't until I double checked   that the extra 2 D6 of damage that this feature  gives us against enemies who have not taken a turn   in combat yet doesn't just apply to weapon attacks  just like everything that we're building for today   it simply applies to all attacks every attack  roll that we hit with gets an extra 2d6 so this   is actually the first thing that we're going to  be getting to like make our Nova round incredibly   potent it makes prioritizing number of attacks  super important right the thing I kind of love   most about it though honestly is that since it  only works on enemies who haven't gone in combat   yet it really kind of forces me to just build a  character that can just like start firing on all   cylinders right from round one in order to Be an  Effective Nova damage dealer and honestly as we   all probably know generally speaking the best time  to go Nova is right on your first round of combat   if you can so that you can eliminate an enemy or  two before they even get a chance to do anything   right as for our ability scores I'm assuming  we're going the point by Method as always and   say let's take a 15 intelligence plus one there  a 14 Constitution a 13 dexterity plus one there a   13 Charisma and then I would go a nine wisdom and  take our third plus one there remember all racial   options in recent DND history right come with this  ability to do either a plus two and something and   a plus one and something or three plus 1es we'd go  three plus 1es here so yeah we are pretty dang mad   here multiple ability score dependent and we need  to fulfill a lot of minimum requirements for our   various classes now you could take that last plus  one in Charisma to make it a 14 instead of wisdom   to make it 10 but honestly I don't think we're  going to need Charisma all that much on this   character I think I'd rather have a 10 wisdom  for like perception and saving throws than a 14   Charisma personally not that a 10 wisdom is great  but a zero is better than a minus one right do   what you want there for our equipment I'm going to  say let's go the gold by route and we're going to   start off with just scal mail shield and probably  a heavy crossbow or a longbow yeah you could get   chain mail we're a fighter we have heavy armor  proficiency but we don't have the strength score   to wear it without suffering a move speed penalty  not a huge deal as a ranged character but we might   as well avoid that here early on right since  scale male plus two from our dexterity mod is   the equivalent AC as chain mail yeah once you can  afford it you're going to have to make a decision   between plate armor and probably a breastplate  here right going plate would not only penalize   our move speed since we don't have the strength  uh to wear it without suffering that move speed   penalty but more importantly if I'm going to be  an assassin eventually anyways I'm going to want   to be stealthy right and shouldn't I then avoid  armor that's going to give me disadvantage on   stealth checks yeah I think so we'll discuss it as  we go but at least for these first several levels   before we get to Rogue you're probably going to be  fine wearing plate armor we'll be making attacks   from pretty long range at least again for a while  here and we're not necessarily going to be trying   to get surprise on our enemies but then yes once  we do start caring more about Stealth and surprise   then you're going to want to switch from plate if  you have it to a breast plate which is like the   highest AC armor that doesn't impose disadvantage  on stealth checks right unless of course you can   find yourself some Mythril plate eventually that  doesn't make noise and also doesn't impose a move   speed penalty if you don't have the strength for  us so that's kind of a priority for us magic item   wise I think but you'll figure it out as you go  and maybe after playing with the build and game   to see if it works like you want it to talking  it over with your DM etc for now go scale mail   and yeah grab a heavy crossbow or a longbow too  just to kind of use at level one here until we get   some spells as a fighter one we get second wind  which lets us heal ourselves for a little bit   once per short rest as a bonus action then we get  a fighting style and I'd probably go with defense   you know like I say we we're not really like I say  we're not really planning on using weapons on this   build so defense is going to bump our armor class  by one you might want to consider getting the   interception fighting style instead if you want  to be a pal to your friends and and help reduce   damage dealt to them if you're standing next to  them when they get hit which might not actually   happen all that often on this character but you  know something to consider I'd probably go defense   but at level two with our defenses nice and solid  yes it's time to get into what's going to make us   a big Nova damage dealing stealth bomber so first  up it's time time to get some wizard levels yeah   wizard I think is the best route to take for  the spells that we want and we'll discuss so   as a wizard one we get Arcane recovery once per  day after a short rest we get to recover spell   slots equal to half our wizard level rounded up  always handy and then yes we get wizard spells   and I would probably just be going for The Usual  Suspects here I like message cantrip for utility   especially if I might be scouting ahead for my  party which we may or may not be doing early on   especially but later probably toll of the dead is  my favorite damage dealing canant trip but you'll   probably want a Firebolt right or Ray of frost as  well but for first level spells yeah Shield absorb   elements for defense Mage Armor too if you don't  want to wear heavy armor and you can't afford a   breastplate but you don't want disadvantage on  your stealth checks hideous laughter is great   for control sleep is incredible very very early  but becomes almost worthless later right tsh's   mind whip is great silvery barbs if the mob will  allow it um etc etc a level three we would be a   wizard too and we get our Arcane tradition our  subass and we are going to go with can you guess   it did I give it away in the thumbnail or the  Preamble I don't know because I still haven't   done those yet why did I leave that in the script  I should have cut that out anyways we are going to   go with scribes Wizard and I am so excited about  this I've only ever used this pretty incredible   subass one time I think and it was for the  amazing and hilarious and admittedly a bit   gimmicky a chardon's Strider greased lightning  and I think that's it how is that possible this   subass is so freaking awesome and admittedly  my friend Chris triamp monk kind of inspired   me with his recent videos about scribes Wizards  right watch my favorite one of the lot here and   he really helped me realize that this subass  was even better than I had thought previously   so ever since those videos came out I've been  kind of wanting to work scribes Wizards into   another build and yeah I really do think that  it's the best one for the concept that we're   going with today so let's get into these awesome  scribes features first up we get wizardly quill   which is sort of just a ribbon feature but it's  potentially useful it lets us magically summon a   quill that doesn't require ink to write can erase  stuff that we write and let us copy spells into   our spell book with way less time which can be  really nice if you're finding Scrolls to copy   from or another wizard spell book Etc right the  real gem feature here of course is the awakened   Spellbook feature this makes our spell book the  bestest spell book in the world and tells us a   few things that happen while we are holding the  book first of all we can use it as a spell casting   Focus secondly we can cast a ritual spell from it  as a ritual but with the Spell's normal casting   time instead of the usual 10 minutes we can only  do that once per day by the way but then best of   all when we cast a wizard spell with a spell slot  so not cantrips right we can alter the damage   type to the damage type from another spell SP in  our spell book so long as the spell that has the   different damage type that we're changing it to  is of the same level as what you're casting the   original spell at so for example if you wanted  to change Fireball to lightning ball you could   as a third level spell so long as you had both  Fireball and like lightning bolt for example in   your spell book right now lightning bolt here  would not have to be prepared you just have   to know it but if you wanted to upcast Fireball  at the fourth level to get a little more damage   out of it you could not make it a lightning ball  unless you had a fourth level wizard spell known   in your book that also did lightning damage you  could of course change it to a fourth level ice   ball if you had the fourth level spell ice storm  in your spell book though right wait why do you   have ice storm in your spell book that spell sucks  because you're a scribes wizard that's why because   maybe you run into a group of monsters that have  vulnerability to cold damage and you want to hit   all of them with a fourth level AOE spell and  this honestly just makes the scribes wizard so   cool and so fun I mean sure Sorcerers can kind of  do this with transmute spell metamagic right but   this is way better first of all because transmute  spell requires precious sorcery points but also   it only works on Elemental magic spells to turn  them into other Elemental Magic types right so   fire to cold or acid to lightning or whatever as  a scribes wizard I mean you could have Fireball do   bludgeoning damage if you had black tentacles  in your Spellbook right and if nothing else   that makes for some really awesome gameplay like  theater of the Mind story moments right what does   a ball of energy that explodes in a 20ft radius  sphere of bludgeoning damage look like I just love   the variety and versatility and fun and potential  power this gives us because yeah we're going to   primarily be relying on a single spell for our  Nova damage on this character and it's one that   has a damage type which is fairly often resisted  in D and D 5e so being able to change it from that   damage type to something else can be super useful  to overcome resistances immunities and also to   potentially take advantage of vulnerabilities if  we find enemies with vulnerabilities they're not   super common in D andd 5 but they're there but  yes the spell that I'm talking about here is   you guessed it scorching Ray because at level  four we would be a wizard 3 and that means we   get second level spells and this is the most  important one for us to grab as I've talked   about on the channel before the wonderful and  fairly unique thing about scorching Ray is that   unlike most damage dealing spells you're actually  making an attack roll with it right as opposed to   requiring a saving throw even more unique among  spells though with the exception of just eldrich   blast I think you're casting multiple rays of  fire with the spell meaning that it is absolutely   perfect for someone like us who wants to be making  as many attacks as possible so that we can add our   bug bear 2d6 damage to every attack right in our  Nova round among other things so yes as a second   level spell scorching Ray fires off no fewer than  three rays of fire Each of which are counted as a   separate attack and you can direct them all at  the same enemy or split them up if you want but   best of all it scales up to one more Ray for every  additional spell slot above second that you spend   on the spell making it if I'm not mistaken the  best or definitely one of the best scaling spells   in the game right 2d6 damage per spell level plus  whatever you might be adding to an attack roll it   is perfect for us now as far as the other spells  that you should get here for second level spells I   mean again go with the usuals Misty step Etc right  but make sure that you grab at least one or two   that do different damage types so that you can at  the very least avoid fire resistance if you need   to cloud of daggers is a great one since that does  slashing damage and very few enemies are resistant   to magical slashing damage ooh what does a ray of  slashing damage look like sectum SRA um another   great alternative though uh Dragon's Breath Right  that would get you acid cold fire lightning or   poison damage to be able to transmute your spells  into voila anyways have fun with it but now that   we've got our bread and butter spell we need  to bolster that burst damage that means just   a teeny weeny itty bitty tiny whiny dip into hex  blade I know I know you guys are going to kill me   that's like three hex blade uses in just the last  few builds but ser seriously I hadn't used hex   blade for like a year so I'm not apologizing but  I promise not to use them again for at least like   2 or 3 months Pinky sweare and of course you don't  have to take a hack blade dip if you don't want to   but honestly it is just so dang good and perfect  for this build and it's only one little level and   we're really only here for one thing so yes we're  going to be a warlock one here and take hexplate   as our otherworldly Patron and we don't care about  the hex Warrior feature here that gives us medium   armor and shield proficiency we already had that  nor do we care about being able to attack with our   Charisma modifier weapons are dumb Charisma is  stupid we are an intelligent nerd we don't care   about our personality we just got a 13 Charisma  cuz we had to all we care about is that glorious   lovely delicious hex blades curse because it lets  us as a bonus action once per short rest curse an   enemy so that they take additional damage equal to  our proficiency bonus not with every weapon attack   heck not even with an attack but quite simply  whenever we roll damage and with scorching Ray we   would be rolling damage three times so that adds  up really quickly also if and when the target dies   and die they shall we regain hit points equal  to our warlock level plus our Charisma modifier   so two and that's never going to get better so we  don't care too much about that but anyways we get   warlock spells here and I would grab the unique  to warlock ones I think armor of agius is fun for   some temporary hit points and to return damage to  melee attackers and hex is pretty good for those   of us making a lot of attacks on a turn but yeah  it's problematic as you no doubt know you cast it   as a bonus action it requires concentration and  it adds an extra D6 of damage to every hit that   you make that's awesome but the thing is we've got  to remember the rules on spell casting here if you   cast a spell with a bonus action the only other  spells you can cast that turn are cantrips so if   we wanted to use hex then we couldn't scorching  Ray until round two right and that's problematic   because we care about making attacks on our  first round because we are a bug bear because   we get a lot more out of the bug Bear's surprise  attack by making our attacks on the first round   2d6 than we would out of hex 1d6 now some tables  might allow once in a while for you to like sense   that a fight is coming and throw out hex on an  enemy and then we roll initiative right I think   the intent of the rules as they're written is to  not allow for that so like if you say I cast hex   on an enemy your DM is probably going to say well  okay everybody roll initiative and then you'll do   that when it's your turn right so in that case  sure maybe save hex for a boss that you think   you're going to be making lots of attacks against  right and you could use that like on round two to   keep puming them for damage but I'm not going to  assume that we're using hex for our Nova round and   yeah this sort of highlights the really great  thing about hex Blade's curse right it's very   specifically not a spell so there's no reason that  we couldn't just throw this on our enemy and then   start blasting right on round one but okay with  hex blade curse secure as badly as we'd like to go   do other things at level six we've got to go back  to fighter because action surge is just sitting   right there and we definitely want it we've got  a damage report coming up so yes fighter two here   we'd get action Surge and that would let us on our  Nova round cast scorching Ray twice once per short   rest at least and that means six beams of fire  damage or slashing or acid or kind of whatever   you want actually man I love scribes Wizards and  when you're adding 2d6 damage and your proficiency   bonus to every single one of those attacks that's  insane so yes level six time for our first damage report let's discuss what combat looks like  for us here it's almost Barbarian esque in its   Simplicity on round one pick an enemy who hasn't  gone in combat yet hit them with hex blades curse   cast scorching Ray action surge cast scorching  Ray again if everything hits we're going to be   doing six rays of damage that each hit for 2 D6  for the spell plus 2 D6 for surprise attack plus   three for our proficiency bonus from hex blades's  curse that's a grand total of 24 D6 + 18 with a   10% crit chance no less at level six yikes and  so against an enemy here with a 10 Armor class   we would on average do 95 damage here and against  an enemy with a 15 Armor class that would would be   70 damage during our Nova round we almost broke  the Centennial barrier at level six and frankly   we will right sometimes I mean this was an average  iara I mean that is just blowing every other build   that I've ever done for Nova right out of the  water at this level damage wise except for that   stupid conjure animal stupid shepher Druid Bel I  hate that spell I'm so glad they're changing it   for one d and d and I mean we're talking no setup  required no this only works if XYZ conditions are   met right it just smacks I love it but boy oh  boy are there places to go and things to see   still for this build so let's get to it because at  level s we are finally taking Rogue levels yeah I   know I want to scale my spell slots too but you  know what's even better than more scorching Ray   blasts advantage on our attacks and automatic  Critical Hits so that's what we're going for now   yes like I said you you could have started Rogue  if you wanted to for thematic or character concept   purposes if you got to Assassin 3 wizard 3 here  by level six right you could still stealthily get   in a single scorching Ray with each one of them  automatically critting against a surprised enemy   anyways and that's pretty comparable damage wise  uh for a Nova round we would miss the hex blood   curse damage it's only about 10% less damage  than uh the way that we've built it right and   yeah would let us start with three levels of Rogue  if that plays more into your character concept or   if your party really needs a scouty lock picker  right that said it does only get close damage   wise if the enemy is surprised which is never a  guarantee right so yes for those of us beholding   to the spreadsheets I'm sticking with the build as  I've laid it out thus far feel free to switch it   up if you want to but regardless at this point yes  we've finally arrived at Rogue one that means we   get thieves can't the special coded language that  those who can interpret it can use to send special   coded messages to one another right and then we  get expertise uh which will potentially be super   important for us it lets us pick two skills that  we are proficient in or one skill in our thieves   tools and then double the proficiency bonus for  them I definitely go stealth for one here and   by the way if you didn't get stealth proficiency  with your background at character creation make   sure you grab it here when you multiclass into  Rogue you do get a free scope proficiency so   yeah that's nice but then I think for the second  one I would grab either perception always handy or   maybe thieves tools if you are suddenly going to  be the party's trapis armor lock picker right we   also get sneak attack here but I'm not even going  to go over it because perhaps for the first time   ever I'm using Rogue levels but I'm not going to  benefit at all from sneak attack it's too bad we   can't consider scorching Ray to be like a finesse  weapon maybe you can convince your DM to allow it   if you change the damage type to slashing or  piercing I doubt it at level eight we would   be a rogue two that means we get cunning action  that's super fantastic it lets us use a bonus   action to hide disengage or Dash always useful  and then at level 9 we would be a rogue three   and that means we get our rogish archetype our  Rogue subclass and yes as I've said we are going   assassin because assassins get the assassinate  feature which tells us yes as we've discussed   that when we make an attack against an enemy who  has not gone in combat yet we have advantage on   the attack and when we make a hit against a  surprised enemy it's automatically a critical   hit which means that we would be doubling all of  the dice that we roll including from scorching   Ray surprise attack and even other things that we  might be adding later I haven't done this for a   while but I feel like I need to go into the nitty  grey of how stealth Works in 5e because it can be   a little wonky it's not super intuitive and I  think a lot of people get it wrong or at least   don't quite understand how the rules say it's  supposed to work me included honestly I've been   guilty of this in the past for much of my D and  D 5p career so if you're trying to go unnoticed   you make a stealth check for an enemy to see  you there their passive perception has to be   higher than your stealth check the question that  the books don't really discuss though is at what   distance does a character's passive perception  stop working at 30 ft 50 ft 100 ft does it matter   how well lit the space is does it matter if  there's like carpet or if it's an echoey cave   these are all things for your DM to determine  and this really matters because scorching Ray   has a distance of 120 ft I mean I guess if you  can see them to hit them with the spell they can   potentially see you right so you'd probably need  to be stealthy at least to the point at which you   were going to be trying to hit them if not even  further out unless of course you're in the dark   and they're standing around a fire or whatever  maybe they have their backs turned towards you   again a lot of this is up to the DM and up to the  situation so you 100% for sure want to be talking   this over with them before you try and bring  this character to their table as you should do   with every character of course anyways yeah it's  now more important than ever to try and get the   drop on your enemies so if you don't have mythal  plate armor ditch that plate for a breast plate   if you haven't done so yet anyways still talking  about Stealth rules here assuming that you do get   the drop on your enemies and try to go Nova on  them while unnoticed here's how it works if an   enemy is surprised that means they didn't know  you were there before you tried to hurt them   they can't move or take an action until their  turn ends at which point I think it's implied   the surprised status ends for them feel free to  argue about this in the comments if you'd like   but I think it's pretty clear most seem to agree  like there's no surprise round so if you want to   make your attacks before you even make that first  attack roll everybody rolles initiative right so   you're attacking from stealth but you don't get  like a free attack on them you say I'm going to   cast hex Blade's curse on them and your DM will  say okay let's roll initiative and let's say enemy   a Rolls an 18 you roll a 15 and enemy b rolls a  12 enemy a then goes first they're surprised as   such they can't do anything their turn ends but  now they're not surprised anymore and they have   taken a turn in combat right now it's your turn  you could make your attacks against enemy a but   since they're not surprised they've already had  a turn and you're an assassin and a bug bear you   decide to make your attacks against enemy B who  hasn't gone yet and is therefore still surprised   so that you can make them with advantage and  you autoc crit and you add two D6 for surprise   attack or actually for D6 since it's going to  crit to each hit right right so again it's not   like you make your attacks and then everyone rolls  initiative though that is often how we've played   it at my table and I'm sure many of you do the  same and I think that's actually how it's handled   in balers Gate 3 take a drink okay makes sense  and yeah this is why trying to use hex doesn't   really work because if you spend your first turn  hexing then you can't scorching Ray and next round   nobody's surprised and everyone's had to turn in  combat I mean I guess you could try to argue that   you could hex someone from stealth without them  noticing then you wait 6 seconds and open fire I   have to believe that most DMS would say no you hex  them they can feel the Spells effect settle in on   them and they become alert to danger or something  but maybe not doesn't necessarily say that that   happens in the spell description right they're not  like covered in light or anything again feel free   to argue about it in the comments yay algorithm  okay with everything clear as mud it's time for   our next damage report since last check we've  simply added three levels of Assassin Rogue   and in addition to picking up some utility  we've simply added advantage and autoc crits   to all of our attacks during our Nova round yes  this now assumes that the enemy is surprised no   there's no guarantee that you're going to get  surprised when you want it so yeah that means   sometimes the numbers I'm about to give you will  be accurate and sometimes they won't if you don't   love the idea of being at the mercy of your DM  the particular combat encounter your stealth   check and your fellow players who may or may  not want to vooy Jenkins every single fight Theo Dragons curse you thoro then feel free to skip  assassin altogether and just go back to wizard uh   for more and better spell slots and more scorching  Ray blasts but if you want to lean into being an   assassin Mage which was kind of the whole concept  for this video in the first place right then yeah   when you do get that surprise it is going to be  spectacular at this point though yes I'm going   to assume that all of our attacks are made with  advantage and are becoming automatic Critical Hits   and thus against an enemy with a 10 armor class  we would on average do 190 damage during our Nova   round and against an enemy with a 16 Armor class  we would do 161 damage on average during our burst   round crimey again compared to other Nova damage  builds that I've done to date that's still upper   half of tier one but now of course we have that  big humongous caveat that it only works if they're   surprised not the first time I've met made this  assumption using assassin so I really don't feel   at all bad about it but yeah it is very important  to note again if you want to skip assassin and   just go with more wizard you'll be great basically  significantly less damage when they're surprised   and significantly more when they're not still  solid but at level 10 now that we have finally   kind of gotten everything else in place yes it's  time to feed that scorching Ray beast and make it   as big as we can so we're going back to wizard  this means as a wizard 4 we'd get an ability   score increase or feet and yeah I'm probably going  to bump my intelligence to 18 um it's painful to   have to suffer along with a 16 all this time we  could have gotten to intelligence 18 sooner but   the numbers just looked better with advantage and  crits from Assassin 3 at level 9 than they did   with plus one more intelligence right no question  but one thing I do need to discuss at some point   in this build here is this as we've talked about  going before at least one other enemy in combat   is is incredibly important for this character  so important that you might want to grab like   the alert feet here right or consider taking war  or croner gy for your subass instead of scribes   wizard as those subclasses get to add their  intelligence modifier to their initiative roles   I'd hate to give up on the damage swapping from  scribes there are plenty of enemies in D and d5e   that are resistant to fire damage sometimes immune  even but it really might be worth it and you could   just kind of muddle through fire resistance when  you run into it or maybe take the elemental Adept   feet uh later on or even the metamagic Adept feet  to try and get around fire resistance right I mean   we only have a plus two to our dexterity so our  initiative roles are not amazing that said I feel   fairly confident that just about every fight where  you can get surprised there will be at least one   enemy who rolls lower than you for initiative  but definitely feel free to make adjustments   to better Shore up your initiative roles if you  feel otherwise having to wait four more levels   to get that intelligence up to 18 hurts but it's  not the worst thing in the world at level 11 we   would be a wizard 5 and that means we get third  level spells and while yes this of course means   counter spell and Fireball and flight and hypnotic  pattern and fear the only one I'm going to mention   here as a possible consideration for us on our  Nova round is yeah the of maligned but still   one of my favorites a spirit shroud so while I  think most DMS would probably say that casting   hex on an enemy initiates combat the beautiful  thing about Spirit shroud of course is that it   is cast on you now it only lasts for a minute  and it does have a verbal component so I think   there's still some question here on whether or  not you could cast it get into position and make   your attacks before it wears off it's going to  depend on where the enemies are located how dark   it is how noisy it is how far away you have to be  to be able to cast a spell on yourself and then   move stealthily into combat range and while sure  you could sort of get into position First cast the   spell on yourself wait 6 seconds until next turn  and then make attacks right initiating combat that   extra d8 of damage that Spirit shroud grants on  every attack and yes it's just an attack that's   required not a weapon attack it requires us to be  within 10 ft in order to benefit from that d8 so   this potentially really changes things for us if  we want to take advantage of it it means no more   120t range on scorching gray and if we're casting  a spell Spirit shroud within 10 ft of an enemy I   mean can we whisper the verbal component again  all things to discuss with your DM just for fun   I'm going to assume that we've got Spirit shroud  going on our Nova round I suppose the most likely   scenario being that we cast it on ourselves when  we're like pretty far away from our targets right   with a bonus action and then we're like moving  and dashing until we can sneakily get within 10   ft before unloading that probably means we're  going to be losing a round or two off of our   spirit shroud so now it's only going to last last  say eight more rounds right before it expires but   how many combat Encounters in D and D 5e go  eight rounds very few anyways one nice thing   about Spirit shroud is that the damage can be  radiant necrotic or cold which gives us three   additional options for scorching Ray to change  the damage type two for scorching Ray right or   other spells for that matter we don't just have to  cast scorching Ray all the time every round even   if we didn't take any other damaging Spells at  level three that's a nice little cadra of options   right but feel free to grab anything else that  you might want in the name of altering damage   type on your rays tidal wave does bludgeoning  damage that's a great one anyways at level 12   we would be a wizard 6 and this is like a very  juicy level for us that I really wish I could   have gotten to sooner because as a scribes wizard  we get the Manifest mind feature and this ability   is just so cool it's the one thing I really didn't  appreciate until Chris's video that I linked to   earlier where he Dove really deep on it and by the  way if for no other reason you should absolutely   watch those videos for the hum alone Chris was  in rare form topnotch um I kept laughing really   loudly while listening to it at the gym the other  day actually people kept giving me funny looks but   yeah manifest mind fantastic it tells us that we  can use a bonus action to conjure forth the mind   of our awakened spell book it appears as a tiny  book or a text or scholar it sheds dim light in   a 10ft radius but is otherwise intangible it  doesn't occupy its space it has no stat block   and as such it can't be killed or anything you  can only get rid of it with a dispel magic spell   or by destroying your spell book or killing you  or if you dismiss it or use it again right now   the mind can telepathically share what it sees and  hears with you and unlike fine familiar it doesn't   incapacitate or blind you or anything while  doing so it's just like you have a second set   of eyes and ears at all times that can't easily  be destroyed that alone is pretty invaluable you   can have it move as a bonus action up to 30  ft and it can hover right and when you first   summon it with your bonus action you can summon  it anywhere within 60 ft of you yes even through   walls around corners Etc so it's incredible for  scouting best of all proficiency bonus times per   day when you cast a spell you can cast it from  the mind's location instead of your own so what   does all of this mean for our assassin Mage well  in addition to all of the crazy awesome stuff   that any scribes wizard could do with it and I'm  not going to really get into all of it seriously   watch that Triant monk video it's really good and  lots of cool fun ideas but yeah scouting killing   controlling enemies without fear of retaliation  etc etc in addition to that I'm wondering if you   could stealth in with your manifested mind to make  surprise attacks as always it's going to depend   on your DM first of all with no stat block they  have no stealth score so can they stealth rules   as written probably not but I can see a DM letting  the manifested mind like use your stealth score or   I even read about one house rule that allowed your  intelligence modifier for a stealth check for the   manifested mind of course they do shed dim light  so how sneaky can they really be I mean I guess it   depends are the enemy backs towards you are you in  a well-lit area anyways with lots of distractions   so you could still conceivably stealth could they  hover like up into the air above them and thus   avoid notice I'm mostly curious because it could  potentially allow for some fun Shenanigans but   it's by no means necessary to the build in fact  you couldn't use hex blad's curse from the min's   position cuz that's not a spell right and arguably  Spirit shroud wouldn't actually apply extra damage   damage here if cast from the Spell's location  because whether the Mind casts Spirit shroud   from its position or you cast it from your own  the spell specifically affects you and attacks   you make I mean I guess you could argue that you  are making attacks when you scorching Ray from   the mind's position it's just you casting the  spell from over there instead so maybe Spirit   shroud still works something to talk about with  your DM anyway the point is it's messy and if you   wanted to try and do it for fun discuss with your  dungeon master and or please in the comments below   at level 13 we would be a wizard 7 and that means  we get fourth level spells and I'm just going to   say pyf here pick your favorite of course picking  up the usuals right polymorph banishment black   tentacles but keep an eye on what kind of spells  you might want to use to change the damage type   of scorching Ray too black tentacles does budge in  it but at level 13 it's time for our next damage report since last check the biggest change for us  tactically is that we're now potentially adding   a d8 of damage to all of our attacks via Spirit  shroud again you may or may not want to be able   to try and make this work but I'm assuming that  you are and then as a seventh level full Caster   we can upcast scorching Ray if we wanted to to  a fourth level spell slot for one casting and a   third level spell slot for another giving us nine  rays that each add all kinds of delicious damage   to them now we've also increased our intelligence  modifier by one and added a lot of great utility   and control and AOE damage options via spells as  well and so at this level against an enemy with   a 10 Armor class we would on average do 377  damage during our Nova round and against an   enemy with a 17 AC it would be 332 damage wait  what that can't be right yeah that's right and   that means at this level anyway we're beating out  even that piece of crap shepher Druid never had   so much animosity towards a build yes we are even  beating the crit Lander when they were fighting   human noids incredible now yes yes of course  it only works on surprised enemies but still   amazing oh and you're mostly a wizard now too by  the way so that's awesome anyways at level 14 we   would be a wizard 8 and that means we get another  ability score increase our feet and I'm going to   say we're bumping intelligence capping it finally  at 20 with the same caveat as last time you might   want to get alert Instead at level 15 we would  be a wizard 9 and that means we get fifth level   spells and as crazy as it sounds to say it uh pick  your favorite I mean yeah you should get wall of   force and animate objects and maybe other things  we're still better off concentrating on Spirit   shroud if you can make it work sense especially  as a fifth level spell it's now going to do an   extra 2 d8 of damage per attack and don't forget  if we're automatically critting on our Nova round   that's 48 of damage on every single scorching  Ray beam uh just don't forget to grab like some   important fifth level spells for damage types here  synaptic static is great in its own right and does   psychic damage Ste when strike and big be's hand  can do Force um maybe Dawn for radiant at level 16   we would be a wizard 10 and that means we get as  a scribes wizard master scrier and this is a fun   ability it lets us make scrolls and make them more  easily than other characters for the most part   we're talking about making a first or second level  scroll from your spell book with a casting time of   one action when you do this only you can cast it  and it vanishes when you use the scroll or take   a long rest so kind of think of it like another  first or second level spell slot per day which is   isn't a bad thing at all maybe emphasize things  that you would want in a pinch but you might not   necessarily need to be casting in the middle of  combat right also when you cast the spell from   the scroll in this way it treats it as though it  were cast one level higher I mean you could do a   scorching Ray scroll I suppose if you really  just wanted to get as many scorching Rays as   possible you should probably do it for something  more useful but at level 17 we would be a wizard   seven and that means we get six double spells and  again you know pyf but of course have fun with   contingency maybe you could have contingency  be when I make an attack against a surprised   enemy cast Spirit shroud as a fifth level spell  something like that or yeah I mean Mass suggestion   of course but disintegrate does force damage  Sunbeam does radiant so I might look to grab at   least one of those but for our final damage report  since last check we have capped our intelligence   we've added loads of potential control and utility  and things via spells but most most importantly   for damage giving ourselves the ability to cast  scorching rate as a sixth level spell once and   then a fifth level spell for the second action  surged version right if we were foolish enough   to use those spell slots for scorching Ray as well  as Spirit shroud for that other fifth level spell   slot potentially bringing our total number of rays  to 13 on our Nova round with action surge each   adding six for our proficiency bonus from hex bl's  curse 2d6 from bug bear 2 d8 from Spirit shroud   with all of the dice critting on a hit assuming a  surprised enemy for a grand total of 52 D6 plus 26   d8 plus 78 damage on our Nova round giddy up under  that assumption against an enemy with a 10 Armor   class we would be doing 674 damage on average  and against an enemy with an 18 it would be 615   damage on average we've broken the sex Tuple  Centennial barrier I don't even know what to   call that so yeah that's insane and is more Nova  damage than any character I've ever built by like   a million miles no one else has even broken 500  on average right before at any enemy armor class   and we have six level wizard spells admittedly I  just said that I'd be using it on scorching Ray   to get this much damage but you of course may just  scale it back to a couple of four ofel spell slots   for scorching Ray it still destroy everything and  then now you can cast Mass suggestion or something   right so yes it's all a little heavy let's break  it down in the final thoughts the tier score for   this build if you just take the damage that they  do at every armor class that we calculate for   uh at each of the four damage reports and just  average them all into one big number we end up   with a 272 and yes that means ladies and gentlemen  we have a new sheriff in town for top spot of the   Nova damage tier ranking charts beating out  the previous front runner by more than 10% and   while sure we are assuming at least most of the  time here that we're makinging attacks against   a surprise enemy which is a huge assumption  the previous Champion the Assassin's Creed uh   was assuming the same thing and the second place  Contender the crit Lander was assuming a humanoid   enemy which might be an even bigger assumption  right so yeah that's some insane damage and yeah   it's got some big caveats not only are you only  hitting this hard against surprised enemies but   you're also only doing it against enemies who you  beat in initiative we still only have a plus two   dexterity bonus right right so yeah definitely  consider taking the alert feet sooner rather than   later like I've talked about and even consider  also taking a different wizard subass if you   want to but in which case you know be sure to grab  either Elemental Adept or some metamagic to avoid   fire resistance and or immunity right but here's  the thing even if we weren't attacking a surprised   enemy so long as we were attacking an enemy who  hadn't gone in combat yet which isn't too much of   a stretch at level 17 we'd still be doing around  400 damage in a Nova round if we blew our best   spell slots for it so what instead of one-shotting  an ancient blue dragon you could only oneshot an   ancient black dragon what a crap character now the  ancient black dragon might beat us in initiative   more reliably but still we're still beating out  almost every other Nova build that I've ever done   and I'm just not sure if I'll ever be able to do  a build for 5 that can outpace this much burst   damage but you know what the best thing about  this build is I mean not only are we doing insane   of damage potentially but you're also a freaking  Wizard and the great thing about building Wizards   who can burst hard is that once their burst  round is over you can go back to doing the thing   that Wizards do best controlling the battlefield  right so yeah blow up an enemy or maybe even two   or three honestly at the beginning of combat  then on round two web or hypnotic pattern or   wall of force most of the rest of the enemies  and you're basically winning combat encounters   by yourself sure you'd be blowing lots of spell  slots doing all of that no question but I think at   most tables and especially for the most important  fights you would feel like a god with this build   assassin levels are not and when you couple it all  with those sneaky utility focused Rogue levels it   just feels to me like there's nothing this stealth  bomber can't do except heal their allies I suppose   actually you know what take life transference  that is the build for the week so I hope you guys   enjoyed it I had a blast oh boy uh with this one  so much fun um but I hope that you know how much   I love you because I do thank you for all that  you do for me for the channel I hope that you   have a really great day and a fantastic week and  if you don't please hang in there you got this I   hope that you will be kind and do good and that I  see you again very soon but until then take care [Music] bye when all all the little  LS are Maring red and black antenna   waving they all do it the same they all  do it the same [Music] way hey Candyman   tempted by thoughts of a Sweet Tooth tortur  by weight loss program a cut in the corners   a loose and loose and cut cut on the fense  cannot to offend cut cut cut cut take these chances place them in a box until a quiet a  Time lights down you up and die favorite da   of Matthews Band song Ants Marching might be  there's a lot of good ones though seriously I   mean Gray Street I love um might be uh what's  the one off the off their second album lion   our Graves that's the one I was trying to think  of tripping billies I mean there's so many good   ones cry for Eed them anyway what's yours and  don't be a hater they're super talented amazing   amazingly talented band all right okay welcome  to the red dragon Lodge uh known for its steaks   and uh also really fantastic barbecue by an open  fire telling you these shirts from obvious mimic   are awesome I love them even even though it  might be a little bit shiny for the lighting   here all right that's the one word I can say with  a Scottish accent right is that balanced Center   feels a little off like check the bubble there to  adjust all my pictures now they're going to look   slightly off camera has a serious like fisheye  thing going and sometimes makes everything look   slanted yeah it's good and even if you oh no  wait don't say that um which is still they   could potentially see you right B honking horn  slamming doors need to make changes to [Music] notes M come on mik

Channel: d4: D&D Deep Dive

Views: 65,386

Keywords: D&D, dnd, dungeons & dragons, scribes, wizard, rogue, assassin, damage, burst, nova, best, tips, tricks, guide, how to, character, build, creation, min max, optimize, strongest, powerful, surprise, critical

Id: 7nzw3Hn43tM

Length: 54min 14sec (3254 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 09 2024